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The film studio has decided to take down all of its Christmas videos from Amazon for the festive season.
This not only affects those wanting to buy or rent films such as The Muppet Christmas Carol, but those who have already bought such content, too, who have seen it disappearing from their libraries.
Amazon blamed the content’s removal on ‘a temporary issue with some of our catalog data’ which it says has been fixed, adding that ‘customers should never lose access to their Amazon Instant Video purchases.’
Butone consumer affected by thiswho was unable to watch Prep and Landing 2 spoke to the retailer, and said:"Amazon has explained to me that Disney can pull their content at any time and ‘at this time they’ve pulled that show for exclusivity on their own channel.’
"In other words, Amazon sold me a Christmas special my kids can’t watch during the run up to Christmas.”
The retailer gave the consumer a $25 voucher as recompense.
While this largely appears to be occuring in America, it does highlight the dangers of buying digital content – that what you have paid for is not necessarily yours forever.
This isn’t the first time that Amazon has pulled content that has already been paid for – in 2009 the retailer deleted copies of 1984 on Kindle and said the book was no longer available.
MCV has contacted Amazon for further comment.
UPDATE:
An Amazon spokesperson replied to MCV and said: "Itwas a temporary issue with some of our catalog data and it has been fixed.
"Customers should never lose access to their Amazon Instant Video purchases. If they have any issues accessing purchased videos, they should contact customer service."
